There Is No Ideal Food Cost. There Is Only Your Format
The 28-35% food cost band everyone repeats describes full-service restaurants and nobody else. A pizzeria and a bar are measured wrong by it, in opposite directions.
Cost control
Practical guides on spend control, variances and price lists. Updated every week for people who manage company purchasing. Back to blog
The food cost you calculate at month-end is an autopsy
The food cost formula was never the problem. The problem is when the number shows up — thirty to forty-five days after the price that produced it changed.